Lorna Phillips’ research-based practice excavates traces of material culture and social history by journeying into the biographies of the land. Acts of collecting and re-distributing are led by an urge to discover the artist’s surroundings. The material of clay provides the path into the landscape and what it holds. Lorna intends to delve into the stories that certain places hold; within their communities and their long histories, and within the land itself, its formation. These stories are discovered through archaeology, heritage and geology. The sourcing of the materials that form the works, the physical journeys involved in this process are key to the artist’s practice. Lorna hopes to find an understanding of connection between people and place, forming expressions of the earth that supports us as being our inheritance and so our foundation, our beginning and our end.

“it is felt as being part of your body, and it’s passage. To the extent that a body of water that is external to your body existing in the landscape is connected to your breathing, and your breathing after you die, makes sense.
Why shouldn’t you give to it as you would give to a loved one, because without it you would never have existed.”

Visual Arts Scotland’s Centenary Exhibition, Then and Now: 100 Years of VAS. At the Royal Scottish Academy.

Works on show were produced during Lorna’s residency at Glenfiddich Distillery:
The Cabrach, catching, 2023, ceramic glazed in wild Dufftown clay.
Dufftown Quaichs, 2023, Dufftown wild clay.

Photography by Robin Mair.

Work

Brick-making, 2018-2020 , Collaborative Process

Letter 11 3 20, 2020, Paper and envelope

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